Casper Ruud moved a step closer to repeating as champion of the Gonet Geneva Open, defeating Reilly Opelka 7-6 (2), 7-5 on Friday to qualify for the finals.
Ruud, the second seed, handled the fourth-seeded Opelka, despite 12 aces from the American. Ruud, from Norway, moved to 4-0 on his career against Opelka.
During the week in Switzerland, Ruud hasn’t dropped a set. He is the first player to advance to back-to-back Geneva finals since Stan Wawrinka did it in 2016 and 2017.
Rudd is 5-1 in his past six ATP 250 clay-court finals. To win another, he’ll have to get past unseeded Joao Sousa of Portugal in Saturday’s final.
Sousa topped Richard Gasquet of France 6-2, 6-2 in 77 minutes. Sousa scored on 82 percent of his first-serve points, compared to 48 percent for Gasquet, and broke his opponent’s serve four times.
Lyon Open
Top seed Cameron Norrie battled windy conditions to defeat Holger Rune of Denmark 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 and advance to Saturday’s final in Lyon, France.
Norrie sailed through the first set but squandered a two-game lead at 4-2 in the second set, with Rune forcing a third. Norrie broke Rune’s serve in the ninth game of the match to take a 5-4 lead and then quickly serve out for the match.
Norrie, of Great Britain, will meet Slovakia’s Alex Molcan in the final.
Molcan defeated Australian Alex de Minaur 7-6 (2), 6-2 in one hour and 48 minutes.
Molcan is 9-2 on clay this season. He’s looking for his first tour victory.
–Field Level Media